The prognostic role of pre-treatment neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and platelet to lymphocyte ratio in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy

Abstract

PurposeIn this study, we retrospectively investigated the prognostic role of pre-treatment neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients (ESCC) treated with concurrent chemo-radiotherapy (CCRT).MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the records of 338 patients with pathologically diagnosed esophageal squamous cell carcinoma that underwent concurrent chemo-radiotherapy from January 2013 to December 2017. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify prognostic factors for progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).ResultsThe result showed that the thresholds for NLR and PLR were 2.47 and 136.0 by receiver operating characteristic curve. High NLR and PLR were both associated with tumor length (P < 0.05). High NLR and PLR were significantly associated with poor PFS and OS. Multivariate analyses identified NLR, PLR and TNM stage were independent risk factors for PFS and OS.ConclusionsWe show that the pre-treatment NLR and PLR may serve as prognostic indicators for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma treated with concurrent chemo-radiotherapy.